Entries from May 2017

After nearly a decade of on-and-off-again discussion, Auburn officials are hoping to push forward with a specific master plan for future development of a city sports complex.
City parks and leisure services director Dan Pruehs told City Council at its monthly workshop meeting Thursday that the city wants to move forward with preparing a multi-phase development plan that it can present to council at its planning retreat next month.
Based on council recommendations and citizen feedback, elements of the master plan that could be constructed next fiscal year would be discussed by staff during its FY2018 project meeting in July. A conceptual drawing of the Auburn Sports Complex, which would include the current baseball fields along Mary Carter Avenue and other athletic facilities, was developed in 2009.
Falcon Design Consultants was hired last year to update the plan by incorporating property acquired by the city along Mary Carter Avenue and 9th Street.
Though the complex has been a topic of discussion at council’s annual retreat, no solid master plan has been agreed to, Pruehs said.
Based on needs identified by city staff and citizen feedback, Pruehs said the master plan would include updated walking trails, advanced playground areas for a wider age range of children to play on, multi-purpose fields which would allow the city to offer sports like soccer and lacrosse and basketball goals.
Ideally, Pruehs said, the tennis courts currently by the Auburn Public Library would also be relocated to the complex.
“We know that this is not a one-year project, but a multiple-year one,” Pruehs told council. “But by coming up with a conceptual master plan, it allows us to work in phases with what our city’s budget allows.
“I want more stuff and I want the city to be able to offer more sports and programs to bring in more people to our facilities.”
For more on Thursday's meeting, see the May 24 issue of the Barrow News-Journal.

An agreement between Barrow County and CSX Transportation to close three public railroad crossings as a condition for a new crossing at Ed Hogan Road opening is now official.
Under the agreement approved unanimously by the Barrow Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, the crossings at Cosby Road/Airport Road (already closed) and a crossing at Bird Hammond Road which closed in 2008 will count as two of the three CSX-required closings, and the crossing at Deer Run Trail will be closed after the phase 1 overpass of the future West Winder Bypass opens. That opening is anticipated to be in 2021, according to the latest county projections.
Under the agreement, the Deer Run Trail crossing would be closed within 30 days of completion of the overpass. The agreement also requires the county to deposit $155,889 upfront to CSX to complete the crossing closures ahead of the Ed Hogan Road crossing opening, scheduled for July. That deposit will come from the county’s reserves under the motion approved by the board Tuesday.
For more on Tuesday's meeting, see the May 24 issue of the Barrow News-Journal.

The finances of Barrow County Habitat for Humanity are being audited after two board members told Winder police that money was missing from the non-profit organization.
According to an incident report, board treasurer Connie Lane and board member Dale Sauls told police on May 2 that after reviewing the organization’s finances, they discovered former executive director Dawn Puckett paid herself $34,000 too much during her time with the organization from 2014-16 and that the organization had not filed taxes with the Internal Revenue Service for three years.
The nonprofit received a $95,000 grant that paid Puckett’s salary for the three years. The board fired Puckett in January after she began habitually canceling monthly board meetings, according to the report.
An audit of the years 2014-16 began in mid-April, according to the report.
Police told Lane and Sauls they would need the results of a completed audit before beginning a formal investigation.
When reached last week, Lane said the organization was conducting an audit of the past three years’ finances, but declined further comment.

Warner Jackson McBrayer, III, known to his family and friends as Chuck, has passed away. He was born on August 6, 1946, in Rome, Ga. and spent his childhood years in Winder. He attended Darlington School in Rome and Georgia Military Academy in Milledgeville, Ga. He attended the University of Georgia and went on to serve in the United States Air ...
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WINDER - Marcus Lee Allen, 56, passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2017. Mr. Allen was born in Winder, the son of Virginia “Jennie” Allen of Winder and the late Leroy Allen. Mr. Allen was a member of the Center United Methodist Church in Hoschton and attended Jackson County Service Center (Solar Tech) for 32 years. Survivors in addition to his ...
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LOGANVILLE - Terry Bentley, 63, formerly of Bethlehem, passed away on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. Terry was preceded in death by his parents, Ernest and Dorothy Bentley; and his sister, Nancy Brown. Survivors include his wife, Carol Savage Bentley, Loganville; sons and daughters-in-law, Duane and Julie Bentley, Winder, and Brian and Deniece ...
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WINDER - Paul Thomas Stallings, 80, passed away on Friday morning, May 19, 2017, following an extended illness. Mr. Stallings was born on October 22, 1936, at his home in the New Lois Community of Berrien County, Ga. In Berrien County, Paul was educated in the school system and graduated in the last class of the old Berrien County High School. ...
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Political campaign spending is nothing new.
Money seems to grow on trees during an election for public office.
Over the past two decades, I suppose we have seen political candidates spend hundreds of millions of dollars to win seats in Congress or to sit in the White House.
Unfortunately, the spending is growing at a record pace and election spending seems to be the big thing now. Numbers vary across the board but it makes you stop and think.
Using information from the Center for Responsive Politics, the Washington Post reported in an article that the national elections in 2014 cost $3.7 billion.
Opensecrets.org ran a story pointing out our two primary parties spent $1,080,973,843 during the campaigns for 26 presidential candidates in 2015 and 2016. House candidates spent $58,842,694 and Senate hopefuls spent $47, 182,567.
What we have is several billion dollars spent and little to show for the expense of the most recent campaigns.
Now we read that two candidates fighting for a U.S. House seat representing Georgia have spent about $30 million in just five months.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution (May 14), the two candidates have spent an enormous amount of money in Georgia’s biggest political race in recent years. And, the race isn’t over until June 20.
Republican candidate Karen Handel and Democrat Jon Ossoff are setting records for spending in their bid to win the Sixth Congressional District race in Georgia to fill Tom Price’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Greg Bluestein’s AJC report reported the race for the “…suburban Atlanta seat (is) now the most expensive House seat election in U.S. history.”
The previous most expensive house race was in Florida between Allen West (Republican) and Democrat Patrick Murphy at $29.6 million.
We have Handel, a lady from Georgia who wants to represent her home state, campaigning and attacking Ossoff by tying him to California’s U.S. House of Representative Nancy Pelosi and big time, rich Democrats.
Ossoff in turn, a Georgia native who does not actually live in the district, attacks Handel daily on her excessive spending in her previous elected positions.
Handel has some baggage and Ossoff has so much air in his resume, it might take flight like a balloon at any moment.
It would be nice if they got down to the nitty-gritty in the campaign issues and really stated why we should elect one or the other.
An interesting side to the Georgia race is the fact that Ossoff is even running.
This is a slap to the face of Georgia Democrats with the national party basically saying Georgia doesn’t have a capable or deserving Democrat to put into the race.
Meanwhile, the two candidates are paying big money to local media and staffs as they try to out -do each other and set up a win at the polls in the June runoff.
The amount of money being spent by the two candidates is nothing short of just being “obscene.”
It looks like the seat is up for grabs to the highest bidder and not, necessarily, the best candidate.
The sham, and the shame, is where we could and should really be spending all of this money.
The millions of dollars spent on the upcoming election could take care of a large number of foster children and foster parents in Georgia.
It could be well spent on military veteran health issues.
Thirty million-plus dollars could enroll a number of children in state universities or in our technical colleges across the state.
We could use some of it to fund hospitals and trauma centers in the state to enhance the quality of life for those that live long distances from our metropolitan areas and who are in need of good medical care.
Much of it could be funneled toward the state’s infrastructure and highway repairs.
A portion could be used to fund better facilities to care for our mentally ill.
So what’s really in it for us?
It’s hard to tell at this point.
The seat may be more important to the Republican party as a whole rather than a great benefit to Georgia.
One of the up-front benefits for Georgia is the amount of money being spent here within the state, especially since a large portion of it is coming from out of state party supporters on both sides.
Another benefit, of course, is having someone who resides in Georgia looking after Georgia, as well as the national party if Handel wins.
However, when you weigh those gains against the numerous possibilities of what the funds could be used for, it’s a losing situation.
More than $30 million already spent with more than a month to go. We will probably see $40 million spent on a House of Representative seat from Georgia. Unbelievable!
We could spend a lot less and see a better fight at a pig mud wrestling event!
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Jimmy Terrell can be reached at ejterrell@gmail.com.

Forget Kim Jong Un and his missiles.
Forget Russian meddling in elections and fomenting unrest around the world.
Forget James Comey’s firing and the chaos that has gripped Washington D.C. over the last five months.
Those aren’t our problems.
Well, they may become our problems, but there’s nothing we can do to have an impact on any of those things.
If Kim Jong Un wants to drop a nuke on our heads, we can’t stop him.
If President Trump wants to tweet out nonsense every morning, nothing we can do about it.
If you want to know what our real problems are, problems that we have some control over, look at the crime reports in this newspaper.
Meth is taking over the area. We are being flooded with this nasty drug in all corners of the community.
The abuse of prescription drugs is growing. Is everyone hooked on something? Seems like it.
Domestic disputes and violence are epidemic in the area, often fueled by drugs and alcohol abuse that make minor incidents into violent blowups. Stranger on stranger crime is rare here; in this community, you better worry about your friends, neighbors and family members.
Mental illness is a huge problem here. A lot of people apparently aren’t getting the kind of psychological medical help they need. Suicides are more common than we know.
Scammers are stealing thousands of dollars from people in ways that make you wonder how people are able to function in the real world. Why do people fall for what are obviously fake phone calls demanding money?
And just plain stupidity is rampant in the community. Reading some of these local crime reports is like reading the script to a bad episode of Dukes of Hazzard.
Here’s a few recent examples of the kinds of crazy things that have become all too common:
•A man tried to run over a woman in the parking lot of a grocery store after she told the driver to slow down. The driver told the woman’s boyfriend he needed to “control his girl,” then put the car in reverse and tried to run her down.
•A woman gave scammers access to her bank accounts via computer, then gave the scammers $1,000 in iTunes gift cards. All of that came after the scammers said they were a business that owed her $200.
•A group of knuckleheads put a door on an old recliner in their backyard and used it as target practice. But they put the target in line with a neighbor’s house and shot up her car. Another man at a different location, who is apparently mentally ill, was found shooting randomly at houses in his neighborhood. Morons.
•A woman got drunk on Cinco de Mayo, left her stepchildren in the middle of the road, then puked all over a cop when he took her to the hospital. She wanted the cop to sit in her lap, too.
•A man high on drugs who was hallucinating thought a group of people was holding his wife hostage in the crawlspace beneath his house.
•A mother and daughter got into a physical altercation after the mom said the girl couldn’t take a trip to Disney World after winning a Girl Scout cooking-selling contest. The girl hadn’t done her homework.
•A woman stole a dress off a shelf at a store, put it on, then squatted in the aisle and peed on the floor.

Have we become a community of idiots?
It seems so. One of the biggest complaints from area employers is how undisciplined many employees have become. Despite a very low unemployment rate, there are jobs available locally.
But employers say that a lot of applicants can’t pass a drug test, or they apply for jobs looking like they just came off a 6-week drunk.
And once hired, too many employees show up for work late, have high absenteeism, or can’t get along with their co-workers.
To its credit, the Jackson County School System is attempting to address some of these problems with a new initiative that would function like a European apprenticeship program with a combination of classroom instruction and real-world work.
As a part of that program, school officials want to teach the “soft skills” that employers demand — showing up for work on time, doing basic personal grooming, staying off drugs and learning to play nice with co-workers and customers.
But what does it say about the state of our culture when schools have to teach the basic life skills that in past generations were taught in the home?
People complain about the state of public education, but public schools are often better than the idiotic home conditions many kids have to live in. All too often, a child’s most stable time is when he or she is in a classroom because their home lives are filled with turmoil fueled by addiction, low education skills and a variety of other dysfunctions.
Of course, unstable homes aren’t something new. But years ago, extended family members would step in to provide some sense of stability for kids caught in a bad home environment.
That’s becoming rare today. Too many extended families either live distantly, or are also screwed up.
What should we do about all of this?
The proposed JCSS program is a step in the right direction. Teach young people that work is more than just about a specific skill, it’s about showing up.
The county drug court is also a good effort, although it is only scratching the surface of the booming drug addiction problem in the area.
We need a major expansion of social service programs in the community. More mental health services are needed, especially to focus on suicide prevention. More DFCS services and investigations are needed. Current DFCS caseloads are crazy. More social intervention programs are needed through the schools to help guide kids who have terrible home lives. Mentoring programs help, but are not enough to meet all the needs.
And unfortunately, we’re also going to need more law enforcement and court services to deal with this growth of drug abuse and the resulting dysfunction it creates for families.
None of this will be cheap. It will take a lot of money to deal with addiction and the lack of social/cultural skills that have become a plague in the area.
But whatever that cost, it will be cheaper in the long run than allowing another generation to sink into a quicksand of destructive behavior.
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Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.

When I was growing up in Dublin, about 20 years ago, Dublin High School’s football team lost a playoff game at Cairo on a missed field goal.
Dublin had a chance to tie the game late and attempted a long field goal that, by all video accounts, went through the uprights.
The officials saw it differently and waved the kick no good, giving Cairo a 24-21 win.
That prompted Dublin’s assistant band director, who would later be my drum line instructor in high school, to refer to Cairo as “the land of magical goalposts.”
That’s a more than apt description of Washington, D.C. and perhaps America at large — especially after the latest case of theatrics coming from the Trump administration and the president’s firing of FBI Director James Comey.
It was classic Trump, erratic and off the cuff.
In late October, when Comey announced he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email server while she was secretary of State, Trump offered praise for Comey, saying that decision “took guts.” He had previously blasted Comey last July when the director said Clinton had been reckless with her actions, but that he would not pursue criminal charges against her.
Days after the investigation reopened, Comey announced the FBI had not changed its conclusions on the matter, effectively irking both campaigns and both major political parties. Trump, of course, won two days later.
As Trump took office, he seemed to be very cordial with Comey, but that apparently was not enough to save the director’s job.
The president shook Washington again last week with the director’s firing — conveniently in the middle of the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials to influence the election.
Initially, Trump said the firing was based on Comey’s handling of the Clinton investigation. His letter to Comey informed the now former director that he was “not able to effectively lead the bureau,” based on the findings of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who said Comey had mishandled the Clinton investigation.
Later in the week, Trump pivoted, admitting the firing was a result of “this Russia thing.”
On the heels of that came a report by the New York Times that Trump, during a private dinner days after his inauguration in late January, had asked for Comey’s loyalty, according to associates of Comey who told them he declined.
Several Republican leaders have expressed feelings of discomfort and being “troubled” by the firing. There have been calls by both parties for an independent congressional investigation.
Many Republicans, though, continue to ignore the reality of Trump’s presidency and relate this back to Clinton and Democrats.
In a recent conversation with a Trump supporter and devout Republican, he told me it was laughable that Democrats have reacted like they have to Comey’s firing when party leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said they had lost confidence in Comey and called for his firing.
That’s true; they did. That argument has been repeated by conservative pundits and talk radio hosts everywhere.
But is it even relevant?
I don’t know if a President Clinton would have fired Comey — most likely not, based on the Clintons’ political shrewdness — but I do know what the reaction from the right would have been and anyone who’s ever paid attention to politics does, too.
What the Trump supporter doesn’t acknowledge, though, is this has very little to nothing to do with Democrats’ feelings toward Comey and more to do with Trump.
You can say this is all a case of extremely poor timing on Trump’s part, but the admission that this action was about Russia comes off to me as a dare of sorts. I’m the president and I’ll do what I want. Eat your heart out, Richard Nixon.
Maybe this isn’t a case of obstruction of justice, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… you know the rest.
Adding more fuel to the fire is a report by the Washington Post late Monday night that Trump, a day after firing Comey, shared highly classified information with Russian officials during a meeting at the White House. By the way, that meeting was closed to the American press, but open to the Russian press.
According to Post sources — current and former U.S. officials — Trump shared details of an Islamic State threat “related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft” with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyah. And the president’s actions, according to the sources, have jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on ISIS so sensitive “that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government,” the Post reported.
White House officials seemed to acknowledge Trump’s sharing of sensitive information, instead saying in statements that he had not discussed specific sources and intelligence-gathering methods. As president, Trump can share that information so the legality of it is really is not the main issue here. It’s his attitude in processing and carelessness in sharing of sensitive information, along with his general interactions with foreign leaders.
The aforementioned Trump supporter I had the discussion with and many others have said similar things. They’re at times bothered by the president’s “arrogance,” but believe he will prove to be an effective president.
“They tried to bury Ronald Reagan, too,” the supporter told me.
To me, arrogance is far down the list of worries.
I’m not in a position to be interacting with any president on a daily basis, so it’s not of great concern to me whether they are a jerk.
And, as a political independent, it’s certainly not about whether our president is a Republican or Democrat.
What we can’t afford is incompetence and recklessness, especially in foreign relations.
If Hillary Clinton were president under the current circumstances, I think they’d see it the same way.
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Scott Thompson is editor of the Barrow News-Journal. He can be reached at sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com.